


The Strangest Thing

by Lucy_Luna



Series: Family Branches [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Sequel, The Golden Trio Era (Harry Potter), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Luna/pseuds/Lucy_Luna
Summary: Essie never expected a normal school experience. Her dad, for one, was Hogwarts's potions professor. For another, she was going to school with the most famous boy in all the world. Harry Cross, the only person to have ever survived a killing curse. It didn't help Essie any that Harry was mates with her aunt and on friendly terms with the rest of her family too. This year was already proving it would be memorable too— Sirius Black, the famed Muggle murderer and betrayer of Harry's birth parents, had escaped Azkaban and was likely on the hunt for Harry himself.Yet none of those things lit a candle to the strange encounters she was having with an inexplicably familiar boy around Hogwarts.





	1. A Collision in the Corridors

"Oh, bother," Essie muttered as she turned down yet another unfamiliar corridor in Hogwarts's dungeons. "One would think I'd know my way around here after only living here my  _whole life_." This had to be some sort of trick or prank Hogwarts's resident pranksters, the Weasley twins, had pulled. Essie puffed out her cheeks as she came upon a fork in the corridors. She wished they'd prey less on younger students like her. She was going to be late for Sev's class at this rate and she knew being his daughter wouldn't save her from detention.

Sev was a stickler for promptness.

Essie sighed and decided on going left. As she did so, she felt something about the air change. There was a charged feeling to it and an uneasiness overcame her. The Weasleys pranks could frustrate you, give you a bit of a shock, even  _scare_ you a moment, but they didn't do this. Their pranks didn't leave one feeling as if they'd walked into someplace they didn't belong. Faltering to a stop, Essie  _really_ took a moment to look at her surroundings.

The stone walls were the same old gray she'd known for as long as she could remember and the torches flickered the off-white they always had. Even the rock beneath her feet felt just like usual. Essie decided to look for other indicators since the school itself seemed unwilling to give away any hints about what was wrong. Taking a tentative step forward, she slowly moved toward a cherry-wood frame that protruded off the wall ahead. She knew there weren't terribly many portraits or paintings kept in the dungeons. It simply wasn't where most liked to spend their time and the subjects of them often grew bored being kept away from the bustle of Hogwarts's upper floors.

But that was for most. Years of playing down here waiting for Sev to finish his classes had taught Essie some paintings of more ill-tempered and sullen dispositions were kept down here so they'd be more comfortable and less likely to upset someone. Coming around to face the cherry-wood frame's painting she chuckled in relief when she saw it was the painting of a stableboy brushing the mane of an alabaster-white winged horse. The blond, adolescent stableboy looked away from his work at her laughing and scowled at her.

"What're you laughing at? It better not be  _me!_ " he snapped. He raised a fist at Essie and warned, "'Cause I'll  _really_ give you something to laugh at!"

Essie smiled placatingly at the boy and then at the horse, who'd begun to huff and bray along with the boy's gruff threats. "It's not at you I'm laughing at," she promised. "Just in relief. I'd thought somehow I'd gotten lost down here. I'm actually very glad to see you, Jack!"

The stableboy, Jack, lowered his fist, but continued to frown at Essie. Though it was with less severity now and confusion tinged its edges. "How do you know my name? I've never seen you down here before."

Her smile ran away from her face. "What?"

"I know there are a lot of you firsties this year, but it has been nearly a month since the start of the year. If you've come this way to get to class before, I'd recognize your face by now."

Essie's mouth fell open. "Why are you playing such a mean trick on me, Jack?" she warbled. This was so unlike him! Why was he being mischievous now of all times? When Essie already felt so uneasy? "I've always been nice to you when I pass your painting! Even when I was little and Sev was in a rush and wouldn't let me ask how you were I'd still call out hello to you!"

Jack's face started to cloud with ire again. " _Me_ playing a mean trick? It's you playing the trick!" He threw the brush he was using on the horse at her, of course, it reached the edge of painting's foreground and fell into the dirt. "I won't have it!" he roared, causing the frame of his painting to rattle with his rage and volume. "Piss off you barmy cow!"

Hurt, and with tears in her eyes, Essie did just that. Walking away from the stableboy's painting, she didn't pay any of his other yellings any mind as she stared at her feet and shuffled down the corridor. Sev's classroom was just at the end of the hall and to the right. She was without a doubt going to be tardy now, but Essie couldn't bring herself to care. She was too upset about how Jack had treated her.

They weren't friends— One never really could be mates with a person from a portrait, but they'd always been  _friendly_ to one another. She'd thought he maybe even liked her a little. More than he cared for most, anyhow. It was disappointing to realize she couldn't even say  _that_. As upsetting as it was, however, her mind was more focused on how Jack had said he'd never seen her before. It confused her greatly. A person in a painting might not be exactly sentient in the way she was, but they  _did_ have the ability to recall things. Perhaps not always very well and it definitely muddled faster than that of a witch or wizard's, but they still did.

She'd last waved at Jack on Tuesday and the Saturday before that too on her way to visit Sev in his office! Jack could be brusque and a little rude at times, but he'd never before tried to pretend he didn't know her before. Essie wasn't even sure he had been pretending. It all felt very authentic from his end. It made her wonder if there wasn't some sort of reset on portrait's memories. Did it completely disappear every ten years? Twenty? And if that was the case, surely someone would have mentioned it before to her or around her. Or she'd have read it in a book? Or been taught so in a class? Perhaps even experienced it once or twice? Right?

Essie was shaken from her thoughts when she fell to the floor. A sharp, pointy body landed on top of her and parchment, books, and quills scattered around them. "Ouch!" she cried.

Through her hair, she caught glimpses of the pale, black-haired person on top of her struggle to untangle themselves from her and get up. They found perch for their feet on the stones between her legs and pulled their arm free from where it had tangled in the strap of her satchel while she slowly sat up and started to try and pick up some of the loose books to her right.

"Sorry—" she began only to be cut off.

"—You ought to be! You ran into me!" the other, who she now knew was a boy from his voice, snapped.

Essie frowned as she pushed her hair out of her face. She stared at him as he gathered his things. He was pale, with cutting features and black hair and eyes. Essie couldn't place why, but he seemed terribly familiar. Yet she knew he wasn't. She'd never seen him before. Or at least she didn't think she had. Darla didn't know  _everyone_ in Hogwarts, not even after growing up here, but she at least recognized just about everyone.

She handed him the couple of books and pieces of parchment she'd picked up before he entirely untangled himself from her. "Here," she said. Essie didn't really want to say more than necessary. He'd already been rude and she didn't want him to direct any more of his anger at her.

He hardly glanced at her as he snatched his things from Essie's hands. As he stuffed it all back into his care-worn satchel, he grumbled, "Thanks to you and that damnable Potter I'm going to be late for transfiguration!"

Damnable Potter? What could Harry have possibly done to this boy? While she knew some people didn't care for her friend (like that snotty Malfoy and his toadies), Harry was rarely mean to anyone unprovoked. "Surely he didn't mean whatever he did," Essie tried to reason. "He's nice."

The boy scoffed at her as he rose to a stand. Glaring down at where she still was sat on the floor, he sneered, "It figures it'd be one of his brainless bootlickers that runs into me."

Essie felt her face heat up. "I'm not brainless!" she snarled. " _You_ are! Maybe I wasn't watching where I was going as well as I should have, but you weren't either or we wouldn't have run into one another! These corridors are wide enough for people to pass each other without so much as touching!"

For a moment the boy appeared startled to have been called out, then, he snorted. Stepping around her, he muttered, "I have to go."

Twisting around, she shouted, "You could have at least said bloody thank you for helping you to pick up your stuff or offered me a helping hand, you prick!"

The boy stopped for all of second, shoulders tense, but then he started to move again and picked up his pace as he did so. Essie puffed out her cheeks a moment and then hauled herself to her feet. Once standing, she experienced an inexplicable feeling of vertigo. Putting a hand to her head, she watched the corridor in front of her spin briefly before it settled back into a still scene.

She let her hand fall away from her head. Brow furrowing, Essie asked herself, "Did I hit my head when that nasty boy ran into me?" Surely she'd remember if he had? Or at least her head would ache? On slightly unsteady feet, Essie continued forward. Maybe she'd let Sev know she took a spill in the corridors and have him look at her head.

It'd be a good excuse for her tardiness. He'd not accept her getting lost the same way he might from her classmates. She'd lived at Hogwarts her whole life and knew most of it like the back of her wand. With a backward glance to see the boy who'd possibly concussed her one last time, Essie found herself perplexed yet again. He wasn't anywhere in sight. Surely he hadn't turned off into another corridor yet? That would only slow down his efforts to get to his transfigurations class somewhat on time.

Slowly, she shook her head. Nevermind him. She was  _late_  and Sev was only going to be more cross with her the longer she took to get to class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of this chapter? Do you already have a guess for who the strange boy is?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please leave a comment and/or kudo to let me know if you liked it!


	2. A Midnight Conversation

Essie had felt funny when she slipped into the darkened library. Kind of like how she used to when traveling by disapparation when she was small. Her stomach was doing flips and somersaults, yet the urge to heave never quite manifested fully like it would if she were actually ill with some kind of stomach bug. It faded fast enough, however, and she made a beeline for the Restricted Section. As she moved, she only peripherally noted that study tables were arranged a little differently than the day before and that a couple of the bookshelves on some aisles were missing or far less packed than they had been.

Was Madam Pince doing a bit of remodeling in the evening when students were supposed to be off in their dorms and common rooms? That was interesting. Essie would have to make a point to come study in the library later to see what it looked like in the light of day. It wasn't too often professors or support staff alike changed things.

Essie kept her eyes wide for Pince, another professor, or Filch and his damn cat once she stepped into the Restricted Section. She stepped along with plauding care as she moved further into the area to ensure she was soundless as possible. Reaching the unit that should hold what she was looking for, Essie ran her fingers along the titles and smiled when she spotted the one she was looking for. However, when she reached for it, her small, slim fingers collided with a cluster of equally slim, but much longer digits.

"Oh," she exclaimed in a hushed whisper. Essie followed the fingers up to a pale hand and then a narrow wrist followed by a dulled black sleeve to a familiar face. She narrowed her gaze when she realized it was the rude boy from the other day. "It's  _you_ ," she grumbled, curling her lips in a distasteful sneer.

He mimicked her sneer to an uncomfortable degree as he returned her disgusted tone with a snippy, "Bootlicker."

Essie's eyes fluttered wide in fury. "Prick!" she hissed.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

She didn't answer him, but couldn't stop herself from glancing at the book she'd planned to take. His eyes followed her gaze. Almost immediately, he reached to pull the book from the shelf. Essie, however, quickly covered his bony hand with her own and kept the book on its shelf. "What do you want with a book on werewolves?" asked Essie.

He scowled at her. "What do  _you_ want with a book on werewolves?" he parroted in a girlish, whining tone— It was obvious he was doing a poor imitation of her voice to provoke her into some kind of rage. Unluckily for the rude boy, Essie was more than used to such tactics from her older sister. While Eileen could still get a rise out of her if she did it long enough, such behavior from her fellow first years (the boys  _especially_ ) had absolutely no effect. Well, except for her rolling her eyes sometimes.

At her silence, he turned his black gaze piercing like an obsidian spearhead. However, she'd been on the worse end of similar glares from Sev and was as utterly unrattled by it as she had been his mocking. His frustration obviously growing at how little she was reacting to his immature needling, the boy attempted to simply yank the book and her hand off the shelf.

Essie easily held his hand and the book in place. She was far stronger than this scrawny boy in front of her. His eyes flashed with fury and in the dim light, she saw his face burn a dark red. While she knew the redness could just be another sign of anger, she had a feeling it was from embarrassment. Essie couldn't help herself, she felt a little bad for him. Boys never liked to be proved weak. Even more so if it were a girl who did it. Darla was always telling her she was too kind for her own good, but Essie couldn't help it. She lifted her hand away from the boy's. "You can have it," she told him.

He didn't waste a second pulling it off of the shelf and bringing it close to his chest to hug like a teddy. "Just—" Essie sighed. "What do you want with it?"

The boy glowered at her with fierce, burning eyes and a mouth that was no more than a pale slash across the lower half of his face. He was trapped and knew it. That was why he was looking at her so meanly. The only way out of the Restricted Section was past her. Essie was unperturbed, however, by his glare. She simply crossed her arms and stole herself to wait. She had more patience than him, that she was sure of. She'd gotten that from Edie and it was one of the few traits both her parents praised her for. And if he tried to somehow force himself past her without an answer she'd have him disarmed and hanging upside down before he could so much as draw his wand.

Sev had taught her how to do that, just like he'd taught Eileen and Darla before her. He'd wanted them prepared in case anyone tried to target them because they didn't like him or his teaching style. Perhaps some would say she was overconfident, but Essie didn't think so. She knew she wouldn't hold well up against a group of upper-years in a real duel. But she'd be able to get away from them only a little bruised. As for a duel with a fellow firstie? Essie knew she would win without a doubt.

"Come on," she urged in a soft, almost kind voice. "I know there has to be a good reason you'd sneak out of your dorm and into the restricted section for that book."

The sharpness to the boy's face faded a little and something akin to hesitation overcame it. "I," he mumbled. "There's been howling the last two the full moons," he admitted. "Some upper years were  _joking_  it was a werewolf, but…"

Essie felt her mouth drop open. He thought the same thing she did! It hadn't really been the howling that clued her in like it had been for the boy, but how Sev was extra insistent they be careful. Particularly at night. "I think there might be one here too!" she agreed a bit too loudly.

He immediately started to look around wildly as he hushed, "Quiet down!"

Her face burned in shame. "Sorry," she whispered. "I just think the same. My sister and aunt tell me I'm being silly. But my dad insisted this year if he caught wind we'd been out of our dorms after curfew,  _especially_ on the night of the full moon, he'd make sure we had a lot more than detention with Flich coming our way."

The boy looked quite pleased with what he was hearing. "If that isn't confirmation of a werewolf in Hogwarts, I don't know what is," he said, expression one of satisfaction.

Essie grinned. "Yeah, right?" She tipped her head at the book. "You can read up on them first, I don't mind," she assured him. "Just let me know when you're done so I can come and take it to read myself. Our books in care of magical creatures and defense hardly touch on werewolves at all!"

"They're also not very accurate," the boy added. "My creatures book says they have hairy palms, but I think that is just a Muggle legend. I read it once in a book at primary."

She stared, wide-eyed and entirely boggled. Was that true? Did their books really tell them a silly Muggle legend about werewolves? How had she missed  _that_? "I didn't realize they were so bad!" she complained, dismayed.

His lips tugged in a sympathetic frown. "Yes, it is a shame," he agreed. "Mum would be sad if she knew how poorly Hogwart's curriculum has become."

Essie hummed her in concurrence. "I'll have to let my dad know. He can make sure the headmaster speaks to our creature's professor about finding a more updated textbook to teach us from next year. I know Professor Dumbledore doesn't  _always_ listen to him as well as he should, but surely he'll want us learning only true things about werewolves."

The boy's eyes flitted over with shadows. "Don't be so sure," he muttered. Before Essie could ask him what he meant, the boy looked around quickly and told her, "We've been here quite a while. I think we ought to leave. Filch is probably due to do a round in here sooner rather than later."

She stepped aside, giving the boy room for passage. "O-Oh, yes," she stammered. "You're right. Here, you go on. I'll follow you out in a minute."

He flashed her the first smile she'd ever seen on his face. "Maybe you aren't as much a bootlicker as I thought," he said, tone almost teasing.

Essie giggled a little. "I've never been  _anyone's_ bootlicker. I've just never had a problem with him."

"Probably because you're not a Slytherin, I reckon," he suggested as he brushed past her.

She really didn't think that was why this boy had gotten on Harry's bad side, given he was very good friends with Darla, a  _Slytherin_ , but she decided that was something she could correct later. Starting a row with him now would only get both of them in trouble. She started to turn to wave him off when another intense feeling of vertigo hit her like a Griffin.

Essie moaned and put her hands to her head to try and stop the room from spinning. The only thing that did help her, in the end, was to squeeze eyes shut tight and hold herself as still as she could for a moment until her nausea faded. When it did, she carefully blinked her eyes open and realized she was facing the shelf where the book she and the boy wanted had been kept.

She found herself gaping in bafflement. The book was back! When had the boy managed to slip it there without her noticing? And why? She'd told him he could have it first. Had he felt badly for how he had treated her the other day and left it there for Essie to take instead? Feeling just a tad suspicious, she reached for it.

The text fell into her hand with ease and felt as solid and real as any other both she'd ever held. The only difference she could see was that it suddenly seemed much older than before. The corners weren't nearly as sharp as they'd been when she first pulled it from the shelf and the pages more yellow than previously. She frowned at it.

"How strange," she mumbled.

Maybe this book was an older copy that had been behind it and came forward after she pulled the last? That seemed the most logical explanation to Essie. With a small shake of her head, she tucked it into the waistband of her skirt and started for the library's door. She needed to get out of here. The boy was right, it was only a matter of time before Filch or his bloody cat came prowling in here looking for wayward students.

Essie didn't want to get caught and find out what that unnamed punishment Sev had threatened her, Eileen, and Darla with was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think with a comment and/or kudo!


	3. Lavender Picking

Essie was starting to think maybe she was sick. Or, maybe, that someone had made her a target for some kind of mean-spirited prank. She hadn't quite decided as of yet. It was the only way she felt she could explain why everything seemed so different yet the same once she'd walked out onto Hogwarts's grounds. She was supposed to be going to collect lavender that grew near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but the robe she was wearing felt too warm when she'd been sure it would protect her the nip of the wind her mum had warned her about when she stopped by her parents' quarters for an early Saturday breakfast.

The farther she walked out onto Hogwarts's green expanses, the more things felt off. Trees had more leaves than she recalled them having a couple of days ago, the sky was blue when a peak outside a window in one of Hogwarts's corridors had shown a mostly overcast sky earlier. Essie considered turning back, she didn't like this strangeness. Yet even as she slowed to a plodding-pace on her walk toward the Forbidden Forest, she didn't. It wasn't just Sev or Darla who were stubborn.

Finally, in spite of her reservations and the sick feeling in her stomach, she reached the spot near the forest where she knew lavender to grow. She found herself frowning, however, when she saw that there were already a couple of students there picking the flower. One dark, probably black, haired, and the other a redhead. She'd been sure only she and her dad (and presumably Darla and her sisters, since if he told her it was here, why wouldn't he tell them?) knew about this spot. It wasn't exactly near anything of interest, like the Quidditch pitch, or the lake. Even the makeshift footie field Harry and Darla had put together during his first year was about a meter to the right from this spot.

(she glanced that way, but couldn't spot the goals. How strange. Maybe it was the angle she was standing at?)

She sighed. Essie supposed anyone could have come across this spot if they were doing some exploring. It was just annoying that there were already students there picking all of the best lavender. Oh well. Maybe they hadn't been there too long and there was some left. A decision reached, she walked over to join the two. Essie put on a smile and was about to say hello to the pair when she recognized the boy.

"Oh, it's you!"

He looked up from where he was crouched near the ground, and so did the girl beside him. He looked vexed to be interrupted, while she offered Essie a friendly, inquisitive smile. "Yes, it is me. Brilliant job pointing out the obvious."

Any of Essie's excitement at seeing the boy's familiar face quickly faded. However, before she thought of a quip to return his remark with, the girl with him reached over and gave his arm a good pinch. "Don't be so mean!" she scolded before rising to her feet. The girl wiped her hands on her pleated skirt before offering her hand to Essie. "I'm Lily," she said (Lily? There was another one at Hogwarts? How had Essie missed that? She thought had already met them all, the clumsy one in Harry's year and that dumb the dormmate of Darla's whom her aunt didn't get on with). "Who're you?" She looked behind her, at the boy, who was now stood behind Lily with his arms crossed and glowering at Essie. "How do you know Sev?"

Essie blinked. She must have heard wrong. That boy's name couldn't be  _Sev_. That was what she called her dad! And she knew with one hundred percent certainty there was no one at Hogwarts with his name or a name similar enough to have the same nickname. Maybe she'd said Seth? Essie still didn't know any Seths, but that made a lot more sense to her than the boy being named  _Sev_.

The girl was looking a little unsure now and her hand was starting to droop. Realizing her mistake, Essie swept in and grabbed the girl's hand to shake it. "Esther," she replied, though, she felt confused after. She always told people she was  _Essie_ , because that's what she'd always been called even if technically she was named Esther. What slip-of-the-tongue had spurred her to give her proper name?

The girl, Lily, didn't seem bothered at all, however. She let go of Essie's hand while saying, "Nice to meet you!"

She nodded back, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "You too." Then, realizing she'd never answered Lily's other question, she flushed. "Sorry, erm, I've bumped into him a couple of times."

Lily's (oddly familiar) green eyes glimmered with recognition. "You're the girl who agrees there's a werewolf at Hogwarts." She shot the boy, Seth(?), a smile. "He told me about you."

Essie looked over at Seth and saw he was now staring at his feet. She returned her attention to Lily. "Yes," she answered. "It just makes sense. Why else would my dad be so firm that I, my sisters, and aunt not leave our dorms at night?"

"I'm still not really sure," she said, shaking her head. "They're supposed to be dangerous, so why would they let one in Hogwarts?"

She really couldn't answer that question too well herself, but  _knew_ right down to her bone-marrow it was possible. "They've let dangerous things in Hogwarts before," answered Essie, thinking of the resurrection stone from a couple of years back now.

Lily still didn't look particularly convinced, but conceded all the same. "I guess you have a point there."

When she looked back at Seth, she saw he was almost smiling at her. As if he was trying to share in a little victory with her. Perhaps he thought this was one. Who knew how long he'd been trying to convince Lily of the werewolf in Hogwarts? Or at least believe in the possibility? She decided to smile back at him.

"Right," Essie proclaimed, deciding to change the subject. "You're picking lavender too?"

Seth's friend nodded and pointed to the little basket on the ground. "Yes. We were exploring the grounds last week and saw it." She looked over to Seth and explained, "He thought we ought to come back and pick the best of it before it got too cold and it died or someone beat us to it." Lily giggled. "Which you just may have if we had decided to wait until after lunch to come out this way as I wanted!"

Essie laughed. "Then it's no trouble if I join you for a bit?"

"Not at all!"

For a while, they picked lavender and made small talk about classes. Essie quickly figured out they were first-years like her, though, she'd never had a class with either as far as she (and they) could recall. The three of them ended up deciding that simply couldn't be and perhaps they'd just missed one another or been too wrapped up in their own houses (or friendship with Seth and Lily) to notice each other. Though, as time wore on Essie wondered if there may be more to it than that when they started talking about people she'd never even heard of.

She kept quiet, though, not wanting to sound mental to the pair.

At one point, a breeze blew in a loose piece of parchment that caught on a bush just on the other side of the lavender. They were all curious about it, but only Essie got to her feet to pick it up. Going over, she grabbed it and saw it was a very rough sketch of the lake. Sort of like one Eileen enjoyed doing in her free time. However, the initials in the left-hand corner were not at all Eileen's.

"What is it?" Seth called out to her.

As Essie turned, she started, "It's—" only to stop and grip her head as the world spun. It was a lot worse than she'd experience before and she fell to her knees and scrabbled for perch in the grass beneath her. Fighting the urge to vomit, Essie only looked up when the grass looked like grass again and not a messy blur of greens and brown.

When she did, she found Lily and Seth were nowhere to be found. That didn't seem right at all. Surely they'd seen her go to her knees? And wouldn't have Lily at least come to hover close? She knew they'd only spoken for twenty or so minutes, but she got the impression Lily was a very caring girl. There was no way she'd just sit over by the lavender as Essie struggled to stop herself from being ill.

Falling back on her bum, she turned her eyes on the parchment still clutched in her hand and found it quite tattered and faded. She could hardly make out the sketch that had been on it only moments before— Let alone the creator's initials.

"Something is definitely not right here," Essie said to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think with a comment and/or kudo :)


End file.
